“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice”

By Nancy Austin, PhD – newportFILM Outdoors Summer 2017 Humanities Blogger

With support from the Rhode Island Council on the Humanities (RICH)

Did you know that Newport wanted the United Nations headquarters to be based here in Newport at Ochre Court – with Fort Adams part of the proposal?

In the aftermath of World War II, the United Nations was proposed as a new organization that would help bring peace and justice to a war-torn world. It was a grand vision, and many cities alongside Newport sought to host the United Nations before New York City won out. Meanwhile, in 1947 Ochre Court (a 50-room Gilded Age mansion) was donated to the Catholic Sisters of Mercy as the anchor for the new Salve Regina College. In 2017, Salve Regina University celebrates its 70th anniversary.

This history makes Ochre Court’s lawn a memorable setting for this Thursday’s newportFILM documentary, Bending the Arc, about peace, social justice, and the will & character it takes to realize big dreams.

About thirty years ago, three young health care workers met and decided to take action on their conviction that health care was a human right. The film chronicles the global impact their small mustard seed set in motion; it profiles the moral courage needed to stay the course and prove to the doubters that a better way is at hand. Rejecting top-down solutions, the team leveraged collaboration to innovate large-scale social change and deliver vastly improved health outcomes for millions of people.

Bending the Arc tells a social entrepreneurship success story, but its mission is to inspire each of us to help make Martin Luther King’s arc of justice arrive just that much more quickly. Certainly, Dr. Paul Farmer and Dr. Jim Yong Kim are inspirational figures who have dedicated their lives to being change agents. Dr. Farmer went on to co-found Partners in Health, and is chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Jim Yong Kim has directed the World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDS Department, been president of Dartmouth College, received a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, been recognized as one of America’s “25 Best Leaders,” and is the current President of the World Bank Group. Bending the Arc is a modern parable of leaders being shaped in the crucible of compassionate action.